Keeping your gaming computer running cool is essential to having a stable computing environment (after all, games tend to tax the hell out of your hardware). There are a few things you can do to keep your gaming computer cool without spending a lot of money on a water cooling upgrade.

Give it Space

Whether you're using the old heatsink and fan routine, or you've got an elaborate water cooling system, your computer likes to have enough space around it so air can flow properly. Now, we're not saying you need to keep a 10 foot radius around the machine clear, but the major air vents - on both the front and the back of the machine - need to have enough space so that air can freely circulate.

A couple of things happen where there isn't enough air circulating around your hot components (or in the case of water cooling, your radiator). First, everything gets hotter because the same air that's already trapped in the system gets used (and reused) to move more heat (and in case you hadn't noticed, air does in fact warm up).

Second, if there isn't any available air, it creates a pocket of heat directly around your heatsink (or radiator). No air means the heat gets stuck in the heatsink. Essentially, you might as well be trying to run your machine without any fans at all (please don't do that, you'll hate yourself and me).

Clean it Out

Even if you have a water cooling system, you really should clean your computer out once every 6 months or so. A blanket of dust and debris likes to form on electrical components and can cause a blanket effect, trapping heat. The more dust there is, the less effective your cooling system is going to be.

Also, dust is probably why you sneeze so much when you're using the computer.

Maintain Good Airflow

For those of us who use an air cooling system, maintaining proper airflow is essential to keeping our machines cool. Ideally you would have one intake fan, one cooling fan, and one outflow fan for each component your wish to cool.

Of course, if you did that your computer would sound something like a 747 taking off. So, in order to reduce noise, but still have great cooling performance, some compromises must be made. Generally, high end air cooling users have one large intake fan at the front of the case, and one or two smaller outflow fans (one at the back of the case, and sometimes one at the top of the case). This allows for a constant flow of fresh air. Be careful when using more than one outflow fan - if you push more air out than your fan takes in you'll create a vacuum (well, "air void" technically) and end up with less heat being moved out of your system.

Finally, we don't move air from the power supply to the computer case, or from the computer case through the power supply. The PSU generates a lot of heat, and it doesn't need your help to get any hotter (especially the 1000+ Watt systems out on the market today, those things output more heat than my cars alternator).

When All Else Fails

When we're talking air cooling, we're generally saying that we're going to agree to higher operating temperatures so long as the system is stable when we're playing games. If you have air cooling and your system is stable, congratulations, you've won.

If, however, your system is unstable, then you need to troubleshoot your cooling system. There are a variety of things that can go wrong:

• The heatsink isn't attached properly
• The thermal paste between the heatsink and component has rotted away
• There's too much (or not enough) thermal paste on the heatsink
• Your fans don't move enough air, or have failed
• Other components - like your RAM or southbridge - are overheating

A computer is a very complex machine. If you treat it right it can do amazing things, but constant maintenance is necessary for your computer to have a long service life.

Do you have a question you need answered? E-mail me! lordkat@gmail.com

Click here to check out How to Build a Gaming Computer for Under $1000.

Be safe,

Jason